Article II Membership

Section 1 - Eligibility for membership: Membership shall be open to professional educators and higher education professionals with expertise and experience in immersion education, as defined below. Professional educators shall be employed with or exploring the possibility of working with any pre-school, elementary, or secondary language immersion program. Language immersion programs are defined as those that:

• use a language other than English (the immersion language) to teach subject matter (e.g. math, social studies, etc.) and integrate the immersion language, culture, and content into instruction,

• instruct through the immersion language for at least 50% of the instructional day during the pre-school and elementary years; middle and secondary continuation programs teach a minimum of two content areas using the immersion language,

• promote additive bi- or multilingualism, i.e., enriched instruction in the immersion language sustained through the elementary years, including maintenance of the English language both in and out of school,

• are school-based programs that are held accountable for evaluating academic achievement in the content areas,

• employ teachers who are highly proficient in the language(s) they use for instruction, and

• clearly separate teacher use of one language versus another for sustained periods of time.

Section 2-Annual dues: Programs or individuals may choose to join MAIN at one of these four membership levels. For membership, language immersion programs are defined by different physical location and student population. Programs may be whole schools or strands within English-medium school sites. Parents of member schools are automatically included in the school’s membership. Membership fees shall be reviewed periodically and adjusted according to organizational needs.

Level 1 Membership: Immersion programs and schools serving more than 200 students in the Twin Cities metro area; school district offices in the Twin Cities metro area that want to register at least 4 but no more than 20 educators who work either in the district office or as dual language educators in otherwise English monolingual schools

Level 1A Membership: Programs serving more than 200 students in the metro area who do not meet the immersion school criteria but want the benefits of membership

Level 2 Membership: Immersion programs and schools serving fewer than 200 students in the Twin Cities metro area; school district offices in the Twin Cities metro area that want to register no more than 3 educators who work either in the district office or as dual language educators in otherwise English monolingual schools

Level 2A Membership: Programs serving fewer than 200 students in the metro area who do not meet the immersion school criteria but want the benefits of membership

Level 3 Membership: Immersion programs outside the Twin Cities and individuals as defined in Section I

Level 4 Membership:Students enrolled in a degree program in education who intend to pursue a career in immersion education

The amount required for annual dues may be changed by a majority vote of the members at an annual meeting of the full membership.

Section 3- Rights of members: Each MAIN member from a program and individual members shall be eligible to cast decision-making votes.

Section 4- Non-voting membership: The Board shall have the authority to establish and define non-voting categories of membership and participation.